JK Rowling secretly donated money to save female lawyers and their families in ... trends now
JK Rowling magicked up hundreds of thousands of pounds to save more than a hundred female lawyers and their families facing murder in Afghanistan.
The Harry Potter author made her huge donation when Britain and America pulled out of Kabul at speed, leaving hundreds of women judges, prosecutors and defence counsel under threat from the Taliban.
Along with a million dollars from businessman and philanthropist Lord Michael Hintze, plus large sums from other prominent figures and smaller donations from the public, it meant a total of 508 Afghans could be flown to safety.
In a life-or-death cloak and dagger operation the female lawyers and their families had to hide in basements before they were smuggled to airports and flown to freedom.
Harry Potter author JK Rowling made her huge donation when Britain and America pulled out of Kabul at speed, leaving hundreds of women judges, prosecutors and defence counsel under threat from the Taliban
Pictured: Mothers along with babies who suffer from malnutrition wait to receive help and check-up at a clinic run by the World Food Programme in Kabul, Afghanistan, on January 26, 2023
The generosity of Miss Rowling, author of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban among other titles, in the 2021 rescue only emerged on Thursday in a House of Lords debate.
Lord David Alton told the chamber how the writer and Lord Hintze 'in a Schindler's list moment' came forward to help when veteran human rights lawyer Baroness Helena Kennedy needed money to rescue female lawyers - mainly judges - and their families.
Lord Alton said that, thanks to 'spontaneous, generous and very substantial' private funding; 'Some 500 people were evacuated - 103 were women lawyers, all of whom, with their children and husbands, were on Taliban kill lists.
'I have met some of the women judges and know that the noble Lord's intervention, and that of the author JK Rowling, undoubtedly saved many lives.'
Baroness Kennedy last night told the Daily Mail she had become close to lawyers in Afghanistan after helping introduce female judges to the country's legal system when the Taliban
